Croatia is currently one of the European Union’s leading countries in terms of the share of renewable energy sources in electricity consumption, with solar power expected to surpass hydropower in capacity by 2040. This was announced by Drazen Jaksic, Director of the Hrvoje Pozar Energy Institute.

Among EU nations, only Austria, Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal have a higher percentage of green energy in their electricity consumption than Croatia, which stands at 58.8%. In comparison, the EU average is 45.3%. Jaksic also highlighted Croatia’s strong performance in direct electricity consumption across various sectors such as transportation, industry, households, agriculture, and construction. At 28.1%, Croatia ranks ninth in the EU, well above the EU average of 24.5%.

In the heating and cooling sector, Croatia continues to perform strongly, with 36.2% of energy in this area coming from renewables, surpassing the EU average of 26.2%. However, the country struggles in the transportation sector, where it has the lowest share of renewable energy, just 0.9%, compared to the EU average of 10.8%.

Looking ahead, Croatia aims to increase its renewable electricity consumption to 78.7% by 2030, direct consumption to 42.5%, and the share of renewables in transport to 24.6%. In terms of electricity production, Croatia’s total installed capacity was 5,295 MW by the end of 2022, with hydropower plants accounting for 2,203 MW. The Hrvoje Pozar Institute forecasts that this capacity will rise to 8,969 MW by 2030, 13,094 MW by 2040, and 14,732 MW by 2050. Solar power is expected to grow significantly, from 222 MW in 2022 to 2,382 MW by 2030, surpassing hydropower with 3,563 MW by 2040, and reaching 4,860 MW by 2050.

Croatia also plans to boost its domestic primary energy production from 44.2% to 75.9% by 2050, with an interim target of 57.4% by 2030. However, Jaksic warned that achieving these ambitious energy targets would require an estimated 33.8 billion euros in investments, while only 10.8 billion euros is currently available.